An exhaustive and authoritative investigation into the Christadelphians with links from their own sources as well as insights from former members. Complete examination of their history, organisation, theology, practices, and the challenges they face.

Prophetical Speculations

The expected series of events have been tied historically into a particular way
of interpreting the last book of the Bible, Revelation. This is a very enigmatic
book with strange visions and symbols that have to be interpreted. This has
been understood by the majority of Christadelphians as a coded timeline of events.
This is called the “continuous historic method of interpretation” and into this
has been read events about the fall of Rome, the rise of the Papacy, the French
Revolution, the Turkish Empire and so forth. It has seven seals followed by
seven trumpets and then seven vials. Each seal, trumpet and vial is seen to
follow the previous seal, trumpet or vial as an historical event. To explain
all this, the Christadelphian founder, Dr John Thomas, wrote an exposition called Eureka in five volumes.

Since John Thomas believed and set dates for the return of Christ near to his own
time in the late 1800s, this has led to the anomaly that in this methodology the
world has been stuck in the sixth vial (the decline of the Turkish Empire) for over
150 years. With the seventh vial Armageddon occurs. Or as many a Christadelphian
would say “there is nothing that has to still be fulfilled prior to the coming of
Christ”.

That has not stopped speculation about the time of the return of Christ which has
always been a strong feature of the Christadelphian community, although most now
are more wary about date setting and would quote the words of Christ in the
gospels that “no one knows the day nor hour”.

At times this has required strong reworking of expectations. Any significant
political event has tended to be interpreted as a major step forward leading towards
the fulfilment of expectations, but some have not fitted in so well.

For instance, I can remember my father listening keenly to news reports of the invasion
of Afghanistan by the Soviets in 1979 and suggesting it could be part of the movement
south by the Russians ready for the expected invasion of Israel. The implication
was time was short and my need to get baptised ready for the judgement was necessary.
Like other such times the billboards went up and the advertisements in the Press
went out with invitations to attend talks about Afghanistan “in the light of Bible
Prophecy.” The retreat from Afghanistan and the dissolution of the USSR was
not so simply explained. The subsequent rise of the European Union has since
been used to explain it all as part of the need to form the final northern confederacy.
An awkward element has been the involvement of Britain which has been seen as being
part of the maritime power which opposes the Northern confederacy.

Explanations of “signs of the times” and interpretations of modern day events “in
the light of Bible prophecy” therefore end up being continually adjusted whilst
the expectations of a final battle in Israel leading to Armageddon remain largely
intact. In the case of the founders of the Christadelphian body it has meant
that in some editions of their written works passages have been edited out.

An example is Christendom Astray a polemical work intended to show that mainstream
Christianity could not be supported from scripture. Robert Roberts who wrote
it stated in its preface,

“The enlightened reader will bear with the seeming arrogance of the title. It is
a proposition - not an invective. The question proposed for consideration is a question
for critical investigation. Attention is invited to the evidence and the argument.
They are strictly within the logical sphere. They can be examined and dismissed
if found wanting. What the title affirms is that Christendom, the ostensible repository
of revealed truth, is away from that truth.”

However on the interpretative element testable in the real world, his prophetical
speculations did not come to pass and in the 1951 edition published by the Christadelphian
Office (run by the main
Christadelphian magazine), it removed a whole chapter called “Evidence that
the End is Near” saying in the
preface,

“the suggested time of the Lord’s appearing [1910] proved to be premature. Two world
wars and worldwide changes could not go unnoticed in an adequate treatment of the
subject, but this would have entailed an entire rewriting of the chapter.”

Prophetical speculation has always been a strong recruiting tool used by the Christadelphian
community from its origins to generate interest, but there has rarely been much
acknowledgement when speculations have not occurred in line with suggested expectations.

For an analysis of the reasoning behind the failed 1910 prediction a separate article
has been written called: